Lynn White Jr.: On Primitive Franciscans

This quote is from the famous 1967 Lynn White essay “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” Today I came across a version of that essay that includes a section on St. Francis and Franciscan theology that is often edited out of reprints.

“Since the roots of our [ecological] trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny. The profoundly religious, but heretical, sense of the primitive Franciscans for the spiritual autonomy of all parts of nature may point a direction.”–Lynn White, Jr.